A review by pancaaakes
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is hard to describe. There were lots of parts that were very good! There were also some things that felt unnecessary. I really enjoyed the commentary on music, being trans, being a trans artist, food, race and just the overall pretty way parts were written. But this book was also raw, but in a good way. It felt real in many ways which was nice. But it’s also such a weird mesh of genres/topics. The alien parts were a little underwhelming and felt like they weren’t always adding to the story for me. The repetition got a little annoying after a while too. Just repeating certain phrases and words over and over got a little old and I started losing interest in a few places. I also felt like I had whiplash after how quickly and suddenly the points of view shift without much transition. Overall a good concept, maybe could have been executed a little better. I liked some characters, some fell flat for me. Definitely a book to reflect on. Overall 4/5 for the idea, interesting characters and story, and some really nice deep emotions and commentary. (Side note: this didn’t lower my rating, but I wasn’t really a fan of how breathy/whispery this narrator was. It almost caused me to dnf, it just got so annoying, but I was so interested in how the story would end that I kept listening.)
Expand filter menu Content Warnings